How would one inlay somehting like this?

[sargebaker]

Hey guys, My late grandfather had a stone collection and when he passed, I for some reason ended up with it. Now I'd like to inlay one of those stones in an instrument we are working on. The inspiration was obviously this immaculate Ritter.

http://ritter-basses.com/ritter-bass...0731/popup.php

It seems to me that making a template for such an irregular shape might be abit difficult... The extent of my personal inlaying experience is limited to dots... I saw the inlay tracer tool at Stewmac and was wondering if there wasn't somthign to be done with that... Dremel? Router? I've done some searches but they usually seem to be about dots, blocks, triangles, geometric shapes...

[MNbassist]

for some reason i dont think thats inlay, i think thats a melted material...you should email them and ask.

[Trevorus]

That bridge, that whole bass is amazing!

What does the stone look like? Do you have a picture of that? If it's not too irregular and deep, I am sure it could be done..

Originally Posted by MNbassist

for some reason i dont think thats inlay, i think thats a melted material...you should email them and ask.

If you look at the PDF certificate for the bass, it's opal bone (fossilized bone that's been replaced with opal mineral), so it's probably something that was sliced into a wafer that was easier to inlay.

[sargebaker]

From Ritter's website:

"Approximately 500,000 years old Opal Bone- Inlay"

I wonder how one goes about acquiring 500 000 year old opal...

[Trevorus]

Originally Posted by sargebaker

From Ritter's website:

"Approximately 500,000 years old Opal Bone- Inlay"

I wonder how one goes about acquiring 500 000 year old opal...

It's apparently found somewhere in Nevada. http://www.mindat.org/min-7999.html

[sargebaker]

[quote=Trevorus;6703817]That bridge, that whole bass is amazing!

What does the stone look like? Do you have a picture of that? If it's not too irregular and deep, I am sure it could be done..


I'm not decided on which one just yet, some are actually pretty regular but some...well not so much. The thickness is another thing, they are much thicker than wafer thin... I don't know if I could take it to a jeweler or somehtign and have it sliced..

[leppikallio]

First you'll need slice of the stone. Really, it should be slice, both sides pretty much straight. You don't need a template or better yet, you already have one. The slice. Just tack it with something on the fingerboard. Hotmelt glue is good (it is good for many things ). Trace around the outside of the slice with something _sharp_ to get accurate groove on the fingerboard. Remove the slice and rub some chalk over the area and rub excess away. Now you have neat white line arount the inlay. Now just carve or better yet route recess for the inlay. Deep enough so that at the middle inlay is as accurately as possible flush with fingerboard. I assume you have some sort of radius on the point where you are putting the inlay in and that the slice is pretty much straight. Glue the slice using epoxy and let it dry. Once it has dried you have to shape the inlay to follow the radius of the fingerboard. I think that ordinary wet'n'dry paper glued on stiff and straight piece of something will do but if the stone is hard enough you'll need diamond file. Then just go up with grits and finally polish.

Depending on radius of the fingerboard and size of the inlay you may need quite thick piece in fact. Just to make sure that you don't run in to troubles it might be good idea to draw circle on the paper using same radius as on fingerboard. Then you could draw segment on that drawing to visualize the situation and directly saw how thick slice you'll need....

I'm not sure if this does make any sense but some thoughts anyway.

[sargebaker]

Thanks! And yeah I think it makes sense. There is actually no radius on the fretboard, so that will make things somewhat easier. Except now my problem is where would I get the stone sliced? Will any decent jeweler be able to do it?

[derrico1]

Originally Posted by sargebaker

I wonder how one goes about acquiring 500 000 year old opal...

Either with a shovel or a ninja.

[leppikallio]

Originally Posted by sargebaker

Except now my problem is where would I get the stone sliced? Will any decent jeweler be able to do it?

If some of your friends had, or you would like to invest some dollars in one, those small diamond disc tile cutters, wet cutters, which look like funny table saw, this would be easy task. You have to glue that stone with hotmelt glue or that black stuff made for this purpose to end of square piece of wood. Then you can, slowly and steadily, cut the slice. Still there will be some sanding and polishing but that wet'n'dry paper with wet is good enough for this.

[debassr]

That Ritter sure is one ugly bass.

[T2W]

ummm, yea ok. Thanks for sharing such valuable info.

Back to the OP, Ive been busy doin inlay spanned on 14 frets out of aluminum, it works easy.. I start by shaping the piece of metal until its just how I want it, making sure its all nice and square, then I clamp it with a really simple device unto the fretboard and I scribe around it with a scalpel, then with a dremel on a base and a bunch of light, I carefully dig into the board, the scribe helps to not go outside the lines, obviously because you see it, but mainly because I leave a little bit showing and tear off the rest with the scalpel. I then press the metal in it, and glue it in with CA, file it down and sand level. Its actually a lot easier than I thought. I just need to practice to make my cuts cleaner... good luck.

I had asked for a tutorial on this, with no success. Ill take care of it when im on frets 12 to 14.

[sargebaker]

Originally Posted by debassr

That Ritter sure is one ugly bass.

*facepalm*

T2W Thanks for the advice, scribing and using the dremel (is the router attachment essential?) seems to be the way to go. I gues the best thing for me to do would be to practice on some scrap wood with some irregualr shapes of whatever and see the results.

[leppikallio]

Originally Posted by sargebaker

is the router attachment essential?

It sure is. You really want that recess match as well the insert as possible, bottom also. Also it reduces the ooops -factor considerably. However I would really suggest you get the one from StewMac, that Dremel one is not that great or accurate. StewMac one isn't that much more expensive anyway.

[kraigo]

Originally Posted by debassr

That Ritter sure is one ugly bass.

Well, it's definitely not for me either. I'm sure someone (Ritter, for example) thinks it's pretty. To each their own. I have no doubt that it's an amazing instrument.

KO

[debassr]

Originally Posted by kraigo

Well, it's definitely not for me either. I'm sure someone (Ritter, for example) thinks it's pretty. To each their own. I have no doubt that it's an amazing instrument.

KO

I agree - I'm sure some people out there love it - maybe the descendant family of Fred Flintstone perhaps?

[pilotjones]

This is the forum for builders. Maybe we can stick to the question that was asked, how to do an inlay, instead of turning this into Harmony Central opinion hoisting regarding an entirely unrelated instrument.

[debassr]

Originally Posted by pilotjones

This is the forum for builders. Maybe we can stick to the question that was asked

It seems to have been answered already.

[T2W]

This is what I came up with, it took about 6hours to do. I should have taken more time, it would have been cleaner.

[Psychicpet]

Originally Posted by T2W

This is what I came up with, it took about 6hours to do. I should have taken more time, it would have been cleaner.

looks great!!!

really interested to see how Sarge's stone inlay turns out too.

crazy inlay work is always awesome to see. like that Ritter.. what a gorgeous piece of work!!